New Light on Drake, A Collection of Documents relating to his Voyage of Circumnavigation, 1577-1580

Zelia Nuttall, Zelia Nuttall

• Publisher: Hakluyt Society
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317088387
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Frühneuzeitliche Geschichte

This volume contains Spanish official documents, depositions by prisoners, documents relating to Nuño da Silva, etc., translated and edited. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1914. Owing to technical constraints the contemporary engraved portrait of Sir Francis Drake which appeared in the original edition of the book is not included.

I THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH CAPTIVES IN AMERICA

CONCERNING DRAKE’S VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION

I
THE SWORN DECLARATIONS OF CAPTAIN JOHN OXENHAM, JOHN BUTLER AND THOMAS “XERORES,” SHIPMASTER, ON BEING EXAMINED IN THE INQUISITION PRISON AT LIMA, PERU, BY ORDER OF THE VICEROY ON FEB. 20TH, 1579.

Note.

The romantic history and tragic end of Captain John Oxenham are so well known¹ that it suffices merely to recall here that he was from Devon and accompanied Francis Drake on his expedition to Nombre de Dios in 1572, where he was also inspired with the desire “to sail once, in an English ship, on the South Sea.” Bent on doing so and giving up the hope of joining a larger expedition he fitted out a ship of 140 tons and sailed, in 1575, with a company of seventy men, for the Spanish Main. After a march across the Isthmus his party embarked in small craft on the South Sea and succeeded in capturing two Spanish treasure-ships. Retribution soon followed. An armed force was dispatched from Panama, which rushed the Englishmen’s camp and recaptured the treasure. After severe engagements the English were hunted down and taken prisoners¹. The survivors were taken to Panama, where most of them were summarily executed as pirates. Oxenham, his ship’s master, his pilot, and, as is shown further on, the latter’s young brother, were taken to Lima and confined in the prison for ordinary criminals, from which they were subsequently transferred to secret cells in the Inquisition prison, to be tried for heresy. The official report, which has hitherto been published in Spanish only, supplies the exact data, hitherto lacking, concerning the imprisonment and death of John Oxenham and his companions. Entitled an “ Account of the auto-da-fé of October 29, 1580²,” this was sent by the Inquisitors at Lima to the Inquisitor-General of the Holy Office of the Inquisition at Seville, and reads as follows :—

“In the previous report to Your Lordship, account was given of the conclusion of the trial of John Oxenham, Englishman, the Captain of the English who, coming for the purpose of committing robberies, entered Vallano, near Nombre de Dios.

“It was voted that he was to be admitted to reconciliation [to the Catholic Church] but sentenced to perpetual captivity, which term was to be spent in His Majesty’s galleys, in service at the oars without wages and with confiscation of property. He was conducted to the public auto-da-fé and his sentence was carried out.

“Your Lordship will also have received the report on the affair of Thomas Xervel, Englishman, Master of the ship in which these Englishmen came, informing you of its conclusion. It was voted that he was to be admitted to reconciliation but sentenced to perpetual captivity, with confiscation of property and to ten years of service, without wages, in the galleys. After ten years he was to be confined somewhere in this city, in the locality designated to him. He appeared in the public auto-da-fé and his sentence was carried out¹.

“Your Lordship was also informed that in the affair of John Butler, Englishman, the pilot of said English ship, it had been voted (after having examined him under torture concerning the intention, which he denied and as under this he confessed nothing new) that he be taken out in the public auto-da-fé, as a penitent; that he abjure de vehementi and be absolved from the major excommunication which he had incurred; and that he serve in the galleys of His Majesty for six years, at the oars, without wages. The said John Butler was taken out in the public auto-da-fé and that which was voted was executed. It has already been communicated to Your Lordship how these three Englishmen (and another, a youth, who is a brother of the said John Butler) had been brought by us to these prisons from the Royal prison whither they had been taken by those who had brought them from Vallano.

“We therefore returned them to the same Royal prison where, after they had been there for a few days, the Criminal Magistrates passed a sentence upon them and the said John Oxenham, Thomas Xervel and John Butler were hanged. The said youth who calls himself Henry Butler was sentenced by the magistrates to perpetual service in the galleys.

“We did nothing with this youth beyond keeping him in the prisons until the others were liberated, for the reasons that we gave to Your Lordship in the preceding report.”

This official document establishes, beyond a doubt, not only that Oxenham and his companions were in the Inquisition prison at Lima when Francis Drake entered the port of Callao on Feb. 13, 1579, but that they were not executed by the civil authorities until several days after they had figured in the auto-da-fé of Oct. 29, 1580.

When and where Francis Drake learnt of the capture and imprisonment of his old comrades is not definitely recorded, but we know through Francis Fletcher that at Lima he obtained (presumably from men on the Spanish vessels he had seized) not only news from Europe but also details about the execution and imprisonment of Protestants by the Inquisition at Lima¹.

From John Drake we learn how, then and there, Francis Drake made a gallant but ineffectual attempt to force the release of his captive friends, by cutting the cables and hawsers of the two large vessels in port².

That he had positive information that his old comrades were actually imprisoned in Lima is proven by the fact that about a fortnight later, on releasing Captain San Juan de Anton, Drake charged him to beg the Viceroy of Peru not to kill Oxenham and his companions, backing his petition with a solemn threat, after discussing with great solicitude the possible fate of his countrymen. (See pp. 161, 173 and 179.)

A month later Don Francisco de Zarate, on his release, was, in turn, entrusted with a message for “Englishmen living in Lima.” Whether these were the prisoners or other Englishmen we know not, but it is certain that in July, 1579, John Butler, at least, on being summoned to translate the safe-conduct, learnt that Francis Drake had not only entered the South Sea, but had been in the vicinity of Peru and was on his return voyage to England.

It was on February 20th, 1579, exactly a week after Drake had entered Callao, that his former companions were examined by an official sent to their prison by the Viceroy for the main object of ascertaining whether they were skilled in the manufacture of heavy artillery, of which he had pressing need.

Their joint declarations about Francis Drake, obtained almost incidentally, constitute a piece justificative of utmost value, for they reveal not only the existence at that time, in England, of a deeply rooted and growing movement towards colonial expansion, but also evidence that Francis Drake, one of the most ardent advocates of this policy, could not possibly, and would not, have set out on a voyage, the avowed purpose of which was a search for unoccupied, “good lands,” without the sanction and aid of his queen.

THE DECLARATIONS THAT WERE MADE BY CAPTAIN JOHN OXENHAM AND OTHER ENGLISHMEN WHO ARE PRISONERS IN THE HOLY OFFICE OF THIS CITY OF LOS REYES, AND ARE OF THOSE WHO WERE CAPTURED IN THE MOUNTAINS OF TIERRA FIRMA¹, ABOUT WHAT THEY KNOW CONCERNING THE EXPLORATION OF THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN².

In the City of Los Reyes, on the 20th day of the month of February, of the year 1579, the Inquisitors, the licentiates Cerezuela and Ulloa, during their morning session, sent an order to Juan Gutierrez de Ulloa, the Chief Clerk of this Holy Office, to appear before them. When present, he was told that His Excellency (the Viceroy) had sent a letter to this Holy Office, ordering that the Chief Clerk was to examine the Englishmen who were imprisoned. In compliance with this order, the said Inquisitors ordered that John Butler, who also calls himself Chalona, be brought from the said prison. His oath was taken in due form, according to which he promised to declare the truth.

Questioned whether he knew how to manufacture artillery, or had seen it made, or whether any of his companions knew how to do so, or to make other fireworks such as are used in the defence of towns, he answered that neither he nor any of his companions knew how to manufacture artillery, nor had he seen it made, but he knew very well how to make the devices which were attached to arrows, pikes and lances in order to set fire to the sails of ships and to the ships themselves. He also knew how to make “fire-wings” with nails which caught in the woodwork and set fire to vessels. All these are much used in England to defend ships and burn others.

On being questioned, he stated that he had made them several times, and had seen them made more than a thousand times, for every ship carried them.

On being questioned he said that the necessary ingredients for making the said projectiles are powder, oil, pitch and sulphur; and that in order to make them very effective, camphor and spirits were added.

Asked how these ingredients were used, he said that, after making the said mixture into a paste, some of it is put on the point of the said pike or arrow, leaving a touch-hole in which dry powder was poured. They lighted this and shot the arrows, or thrust with the pikes, on approaching near to the enemy’s ship. The same paste was used with balls made of hemp, studded with nails, the points of which stuck outwards. In order to transport these, they were covered with pitch. When about to be thrown by hand they were lighted at the touch-hole.

Questioned whether he had heard or understood, while in England, or since he left there, that Queen Elizabeth of England was entertaining or carrying out the project of fitting out a number of vessels which were to come to found settlements on the coast of the North and South Seas, he said that he had not heard or understood more about this than that a gentleman named Grenville, who is a knight, had applied to the said Queen for a licence to come and found settlements, but not in lands belonging to King Philip, for the Queen did not wish to give a licence for that, as treaties of peace had then been made. The said gentleman had asked for a licence to settle on the River Plate towards the Strait of Magellan. For this purpose he had bought four vessels, and John Oxenham who is here, in prison, had agreed to go with him. But as the Queen did not give them the licence, they sold the ships.

Questioned whether they had planned to found settlements on the coast of the North Sea, or to pass through the Strait of Magellan and populate the coast of the South Sea, he answered that he had heard it said that it was to be on the coast of the North Sea, towards the River Plate, in a country of which they had reports, from some Portuguese, that it was very rich. The Queen had demanded that they were to give a security of thirty to forty thousand pounds that they would not touch lands belonging to King Philip, and on this account the expedition was frustrated, as aforesaid.

Questioned whether he had information or knew whether, in England, there were men who had entered the Strait of Magellan, and whether they were able to pass out of the Strait as well as enter it, he answered that, when he left England, there was no man in England who had passed the equinoctial line towards the south or was planning to come, although they have there the description of Magellan’s navigation and of all these Indies, and they look into these matters, and discuss them. He does not know whether one can return through the Strait, but he thinks that, as it lies not so very far south, one could return through it, just as well as one can enter it, at certain seasons of the year. It is a well known thing that, if one did not return through the Strait, one would be obliged to make the round voyage by the Portuguese Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, and the coast of Africa, and return to the Canaries. He said that he knew that no company of a...